Memoir of the Rev. John Macfarlane, LL.D. By William Graham.
(Oliphant, Edinburgh.)—Mr. Graham does not seem to understand that the first duty of a biographer is to efface himself. He displays an ornate and rhetorical style, not guided by any remarkable faculties of discretion and taste. We may mention, as an instance, the very obscure pages (124- 130) which describe the share which Dr. Macfarlane took, or did not take (it is not clear which of the two is intended), in the Atonement Con- troversy of about thirty years ago. No reader can gain from it but the very barest idea, if he gains any idea at all, of how Dr. Macfarlane regarded the matter, but he can hardly help learning something of Mr. Graham's views. Apart from this fault of execution, the biography is worth reading. Dr. Macfarlane, if not a man of extraordinary gifts, was one whose life and labours seem to call for some memorial. Coming somewhat late in life to a church in the suburbs of London, he gathered together a numerous congregation, who showed their respect and love for him by proof both of a spiritual and a material kind. His theology inclined, though such dark phrases as "Marrow theology " warn us to be oareftd in our judgment, to the liberal side of Presbyterian doctrine. His sympathies were wide, as far, at least, as the circle of Presbyterianism and of English Voluntary bodies extended. The Church of England is ignored.
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